My research is driven by a desire to better understand the social and natural world around me. I draw from political ecology and critical political economy to examine how colonialism and capitalism have shaped the crises we now inhabit — crises that are not only ecological but also deeply political and social.

Fire is my companion in this enquiry. It is a lens through which I examine forest politics, state-making, environmental-agrarian change, and the life-making practices of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

My empirical work is grounded in forest landscapes in the Uttarakhand Himalaya, India, and in the wildland–urban interface around Cape Town, South Africa.

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Fire, Livelihoods & Biodiversity at Royal Holloway, University of London.